India's first Grass Conservatory in Uttarakhand:

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Why in the news?
India’s first Grass Conservatory was launched by the research wing of the Uttarakhand forest department in Ranikhet of Almora district.

Key highlights:

• This conservatory is funded under the Central Government’s CAMPA (Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority) scheme and is developed by the research wing of the Uttarakhand Forest Department. 
• The research wing of the Uttarakhand forest department took 3 years to develop the conservation area of the Grass Conservatory project.
• The first Grass Conservatory project in India has been established in an area of 2 acres. 
• The conservation area houses around 90 different grass species while displaying important ecological, scientific, medicinal, and cultural information related to grass species ‘All Flesh is Grass’.
• There are seven different sections of grasses in the conservation area namely medicinal, aromatic, fodder, ornamental, agricultural grasses, and religious importance.

India’s first Grass Conservatory:

Significance:

• India’s first Grass Conservatory project aims at creating awareness about the importance of grass species, promoting conservation.
•  Grasses play a key role in Carbon Sequestration during which grasses store most of the absorbed carbon underground. 
•  During a forest fire, carbon stored in trees' information cells of biomass gets released into the atmosphere. Whereas, during a fire in grasslands, the grass species store the carbon underground. 

Additional information:

• Tiger grass or Broom grass (scientific name Thysanolaena Maxima) is an important fodder grass. 
• It is found in ravines, steep hills, and sandy banks of rivers upto an altitude of 2,000 m in Uttarakhand.
• Elephant or Napier grass (Pennisetum Purpureum) is an excellent pasture fodder.
•  It is a good contour hedgerow. 
• It is used for firebreaks, windbreaks in paper pulps production and charcoal, biogas, and bio-oil.